On Thursday, October 6, we heard a special Halloween presentation by the San Diego Ghost Hunters.  The Ghost Hunters at the meeting were Maritza Skandunas, Coleen Rose, and Julie Haney. They gave a slide show presentation about San Diego murders, hauntings, and unexplained phenomena that included information about the Whaley House and Iowa-girl Kate Morgan, who still hangs out at the Hotel del Coronado. The also showed slides and played recordings of electronic voice phenomena from the Gila County Jail in Globe, Arizona, where a suspected child killer was murdered by angry townsfolk.

The electronic voice phenomena played by the Ghost Hunters were enough to chill the most skeptical.  They showed photos of apparitions, auras, and other phenomena. One of the attendees, who had recently been to the Whaley House, showed his own photo that he’d taken while on a tour. Definitely spooky.

Avoid Uninvited Guests

Skandunas explained about the different kinds of ghosts. One of the most dangerous, she said, are demons. She cautioned attendees to avoid saying anything that might be construed as an invitation when dealing with the departed. For instance, just saying, “How can I help you?” might cause a ghost to follow the person home and haunt them.

Whaley House

The Whaley House, which is visited by around 100,000 people each year, is populated by a number of ghosts according to the Ghost Hunters.  Mr. Whaley is the head of the household and likes Skandunas. She said that he’s fond of blowing sweet tobacco smoke from his pipe into the faces of women who tour his home. He also gets quite upset when there are changes made to the house that he hasn’t been told about in advance.

Kate Morgan

Kate Morgan was an Iowa girl who married a local man.  She died in 1892 from a gunshot wound to the head while staying at the Hotel del Coronado.  According to the Ghost Hunters, Morgan is still there along with gangsters and prostitutes who were also murdered.

Watch out for ghosts!

Halloween is a very active time of year for ghosts.  The “veil between the worlds” is thinnest between October 31 and November 2 according to Skandunas and sightings become more prevalent at this time of year. For more information about the San Diego Ghost Hunters, visit their website at http://sandiegoghosthunters.com.

The San Diego County Underwater Search and Rescue Team will talk to Sisters and Misters in Crime on July 7 about their duties and about interesting cases that involved the recovery of murder victims from the water.

Where: Joyce Beers Community Center, Hillcrest. There will be a slide presentation showing rescues and the recovery of dead bodies. WARNING: Graphic, viewer discretion advised. The representatives will talk about their duties.
Social period, 6:30 p.m.
Meeting, 7 p.m.
Free, Joyce Beers Community Center, Hillcrest.

At our June 2nd meeting, we welcomed back San Diego Noir authors, Taffy Cannon and Ken Kuhlken. Both spoke about their own writing and the “Noir” short story collections.

The “Noir” books, a collection of localized short stories, began on the East Coast and includes short stories from a number of cities, including Brooklyn, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, and Cape Cod. Mary Elizabeth Hart of Mysterious Galaxy edited San Diego Noir. She spoke with Akashic Books, the publisher, and local authors, many of whom she knew personally. Contributing authors to the San Diego Noir collection included T. Jefferson Parker, Don Winslow, Luis Alberto Urrea, Gar Anthony Haywood, Gabriel R. Barillas, Maria Lima, Debra Ginsberg, Diane Clark and Astrid Bear, Ken Kuhlken, Lisa Brackmann, Cameron Pierce Hughes, Morgan Hunt, Jeffrey J. Mariotte, Martha Lawrence, and Taffy Cannon.

When her brother, who had once been a policeman, suffered a series of seizures and strokes, Cannon realized that she needed to take a hiatus from mystery writing and help her brother. At about this same time, Cannon read a story in the New York Times about a Blue Cross executive who was helping to cancel people’s health insurance just when they needed it most. That story, combined with her brother’s illness, gave her the concept for the San Diego Noir story, is it a sin to kill a vulture? Cannon quipped, “It’s too grim for a full-length manuscript.”

On Thursday, June 2nd, at 7:00 p.m., Sisters and Misters in Crime will host two San Diego writers. Ken Kuhlken and Taffy Cannon will appear at the meeting to discuss their contributions to San Diego Noir. San Diego Noir is a collection of short stories that focuses on the dark side of San Diego. In addition to Kuhlken and Cannon, contributing authors to San Diego Noir included T. Jefferson Parker, Don Winslow, Luis Alberto Urrea, Gar Anthony Haywood, Gabriel R. Barillas, Maria Lima, Debra Ginsberg, Diane Clark and Astrid Bear, Lisa Brackmann, Cameron Pierce Hughes, Morgan Hunt, Jeffrey J. Mariotte, and Martha Lawrence. San Diego Noir was edited by Mary Elizabeth Hart of Mysterious Galaxy.

Kuhlken is the author of numerous books including the Tom Hickey California Century series with The Biggest Liar in Los Angeles, The Loud Adios, and The Venus Deal. Cannon is the author of Blood Matters, Paradise Lost, and Open Season on Lawyers.

At the next meeting of Sisters & Misters in Crime, Madeline Hinkes, professor of anthropology at San Diego Mesa College, will talk about her work as a forensic anthropology consultant to the San Diego Medical Examiner’s Office as well as the Imperial County Coroner’s Office.  Hinkes is called in when remains are skeletonized, partial, burned, or otherwise damaged as to be difficult to identify, and assess age, sex, ancestry, height, trauma, pathologies, and time since death.  She is 1 of 60 board-certified forensic anthropologists in the country (ABFA = American Board of Forensic Anthropology).  I have been practicing in SanDiego since 1994.

Hinkes will talk about her work in identifying the remains of Amber Dubois after her murderer, John Albert Gardner, led authorities to the body.

This sounds like an extraordinarily interesting talk.

Date: April 7
Social period: 6:30 p.m./meeting, 7 p.m.
Where: Joyce Beers Community Center, Hillcrest

Judy Reeves, well-known San Diego writer and teacher, gave members of Sisters in Crime some tips on how to keep writing once the muse goes into hiding.

Judy emphasized three elements key to writing:

1.)    Claim yourself as a writer.  You write because it comes from inside you: not for fame or money or glory.  You write because you are a writer.

2.)    Make time to write.  Do this by making daily appointments to write, either on your own or with a friend or a writing group.  Surprises happen when you write daily.

3.)    Write.  Writing takes practice, just like anything else.  Writing prompts are an excellent way to practice, often igniting ideas that can lead down exciting paths.

Writing is a solitary process, and commitment to the process is essential.  Writers need stamina to withstand the solitude, and developing a routine will help.  Writers have to ignore the voices that say they are not good enough or have nothing to say.  They have to conquer the fear of being judged.

Judy has written several books, including A Writer’s Book of Days, which is filled with writing prompts aimed at stimulating the mind.  She teaches at Writers Ink as well as leading workshops and retreats for writers.

She ended her talk by paraphrasing a quote from Hemingway: “Practice is how to be what you want to be.”

Notes for the meeting were contributed by Chynne Strommen.

The speaker at our January meeting was our own member, Andrew E. Kaufman, who discussed the marketing steps he’d taken since his book was launched in June and described how he’d pushed it to the top of the sales in his genre on two different occasions.

Andrew began by telling the story of an author who bought his own book to improve his sales ranking at Amazon.com. The author not only bought copies of his own book, but he also wrote reviews.  He kept expecting Amazon to notice, but they didn’t—at first.   Once Amazon discovered what the author was doing, his book and reviews were removed from Amazon.

Andrew’s story is much like other debut authors.  He had a book that he’d spent three years writing and wanted to have it published.  Everyone told him to get an agent.  He followed that path for about a year, got a lot of requests and interest, but was always rejected because the book was “a little too different.”  He was also told that the mixed genres of paranormal, forensics, and mystery wouldn’t sell.

Andrew felt that the agents had no grasp on the market or what would sell.  They were “in a box” and couldn’t get out.  He also pointed out that agents are overwhelmed with queries.  They receive far too many submissions to deal with and one agent frankly told him that he “wasn’t just turning down good work, he was turning down great work.”

After over 100 rejections, Andrew decided to self publish his book, While the Savage Sleeps.  Amazon’s Kindle was just starting.  E-books hadn’t yet changed the reading landscape, but Andrew felt that was coming.  He describes himself as loving the “quality of bucking the system. ”  He says, “He was always the kid who said, ‘Why?’”

He released his book in the middle of June and by the end of the month had sold three copies: one to himself, one to his editor (who he says felt sorry for him), and one to someone who actually bought the book on its merits.  He quickly realized that being on the Internet does not mean that you are being seen on the Internet.  He spent two weeks going to forums learning how to promote.  The book took off in middle of July.  It got into the top 100 in the middle of the night and kept climbing throughout the day

Here are Andrew’s ten tips for writers.  Note that some of these are the traditional “rules,” while others are new to the e-book world.

1. Be a good storyteller.  No amount of marketing will help a book that is poorly written.
2. Have a good title and cover.  Andrew liked his title, but hired a graphic designer to redesign the cover when he realized his original cover just wasn’t selling books.
3. Craft a great hook for the book.  Andrew’s is, “Two strangers.  Distance separates them.  A dark secret connects them.  A voice from the grave will draw them together.”  The hook should be less than 25 words.
4. Have a description that makes readers want to buy the book, not move on to something else.
5. Market directly to readers through the various forums.  There are forums for Kindle, IPad, the Nook, etc.  This marketing needs to be done subtly not, as Andrew says, “by shouting, HEY!  READ MY BOOK!”
6. Get reviews and when there are good ones, have your friends mark them as “helpful.”
7. Set up Google Alerts so you know who is talking about you on the web.
8. Get professionally made promotional materials like booksmarks and postcards.
9. Do interviews with reporters or bloggers who are interested in you or your book.
10. Be persistent.  Marketing takes work and time.  Kaufman says that he spent about six hours every night working the forums and marketing his book when he first started.  Now, he’s “down to 3 hours a night.”

Other factors that are very helpful are having a good website.  The website won’t get you found, but it will help to sell readers on your book once they find you.  Andrew also likes Facebook and Twitter as tools for marketing.

Andrew’s website can be found at www.andrewekaufman.com.

Author Andrew E. Kaufman will present a talk, “I Never Gave Up (and You Shouldn’t Either)” about his struggles to get his book published with an emphasis on innovative marketing techniques at the Sisters in Crime meeting Jan. 6 in the Joyce Beers Community Center, Hillcrest. Social time, 6:30 p.m./meeting at 7 p.m. Free admission and men are welcome.